Aller conjugation French: from je vais to nous irons

Aller conjugation French learners need most is the présent, because aller is also the verb of the near future. This page gives every tense of aller, then the near future, the passé composé with être, and the everyday phrases built on it. For the method behind any verb, read How to conjugate French verbs. For other verbs that break the rules, see French irregular verbs. To place each tense, see French tenses, explained.

What is the aller conjugation in French?

Larousse lists aller as a third-group verb that takes être in compound tenses [1]. The Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF) says that avoir, être and aller have their own conjugation in the présent: je vais, tu vas, il va, nous allons, vous allez, ils vont [3]. In plain terms, you cannot build the présent from the infinitive. Learn the six forms as a set.

Aller verb conjugation in French also changes stem. The imparfait uses all- and the futur and conditionnel use ir- [1]. That is why “to go” has two faces: nous allons and nous irons.

How do you conjugate verb aller in every tense?

To conjugate verb aller, learn four stems: va-/all- in the présent, all- in the imparfait, ir- in the futur and conditionnel, and aill- in most of the subjonctif. The forms below come from Larousse’s conjugation page [1].

The past participle is allé, and the present participle is allant [1]. The infinitive is aller, and the passé composé is in its own section below.

The présent is the hardest part: vais, vas, va and vont share nothing with the infinitive [3].

How do you say to go in French?

To go in French is aller, and it takes a place after it. Larousse’s dictionary lists the patterns: aller à a place, aller chez a person, aller en a country or a way of travelling, and aller dans a region or a container [2]. Its examples: où vas-tu ? (where are you going?), aller chez un ami (to go to a friend’s) and aller en Autriche (to go to Austria) [2].

The commands are short. The impératif of aller is va, allons, allez [1]. The OQLF notes that -er verbs drop the final s in the tu command, as in va finir tes devoirs [6]. It also notes that a verb like this takes an s before the pronouns y and en, which gives vas-y [6]. But the s drops again when y or en belongs to a following infinitive: va y mettre un peu d’ordre [6].

What is the near future with aller?

The near future, or futur proche, is aller in the présent followed by an infinitive. The OQLF gives je vais partir and vous allez commencer as its examples [4]. Aller works here as an auxiliary: it adds the idea of “about to” and the second verb stays in the infinitive [4].

Only aller changes. The word manger never does. The OQLF adds that in everyday and spoken French the near future competes with the futur simple, and that it presents the event as more certain [4]. Its pair: Je vais revenir dès que possible (more certain) and Je reviendrai dès que possible (more hypothetical) [4]. The OQLF also says that for something right at the moment of speaking, only the near future works: Je vais faire une pause, not Je ferai une pause [4].

Why does aller take être in the passé composé?

Aller takes être because it is one of the verbs of movement that do. The OQLF says être is the auxiliary of all pronominal verbs and of certain intransitive verbs of movement or change, and its list begins with aller [5]. Larousse lists aller as “Auxiliaire être” and prints the participle with agreement marks [1].

Larousse prints the participle as allé(e)(s) [1]. A woman writes je suis allée; a group of several people writes nous sommes allés or allées [1]. For a full drill on choosing avoir or être, see Passé composé practice.

What do ça va, allez and on y va mean?

Aller French phrases are everywhere in speech, and most are short. These glosses come from Larousse’s French-English dictionary [2].

Larousse also lists ça va, ça va ! as “OK, OK!”, a familiar way to cut someone short: “je t’aurai prévenu ! — ça va, ça va !” [2].

What is s’en aller?

S’en aller is the pronominal form of aller and it means “to go away” or “to leave” [2]. The command is va-t’en ! (go away!) [2]. In the compound tenses, Larousse says there are two forms: je m’en suis allé belongs to the formal register, and je me suis en allé is the one in common use [1]. Both use être.

Common mistakes

• Writing “je vas”. The présent is je vais, tu vas [3]. The final s of vas belongs to tu, not to je.
• Using avoir in the passé composé. Aller takes être: je suis allé, not “j’ai allé” [1][5].
• Forgetting the agreement. With être, the participle follows the subject: elle est allée, nous sommes allés [1].
• Conjugating both verbs in the near future. Only aller changes; the second verb stays in the infinitive: je vais manger, not “je vais mange” [4].
• Using the infinitive stem in the futur. The futur stem is ir-: j’irai, not “j’allerai” [1].
• Dropping the s in vas-y. Before y or en, the tu command takes an s: vas-y [6]. But if y or en belongs to a following infinitive, there is none: va y mettre de l’ordre [6].
• Trusting a conjugation page from a blog, including this one. Dictionaries and language offices update their entries. Check each source’s date against the date at the top of this page.

See also: the French subjunctive.

See also: the French future tense.

See also: faire conjugation.

Sources